From Ithaca to Mahopac, from JFK to Frankfurt to Baden Baden, from Girona to Sevilla...the next country on our tour was Gibraltar. I did a lot of research when planning this trip. There was no doubt we needed to spend time in Barcelona or Paris, but Gibraltar got mixed reviews from the online travel community. Many people said it wasn't worth the trip. I was a little nervous about dragging Danny hours off the beaten path just to play with the monkeys...lucky for us, they lived up to expectations and Gibraltar had some other hidden gems to share with us as well. If you've ever considered going, don't let the nay-sayers scare you off...it was a fantastic day trip!
We walked across the Spanish/British border, crossed the tarmac (yup, you really do walk across an airstrip to get to Gibraltar), and began the hike up the rock.
After lunch at a British pub (fish and chips for Danny, curry for me), we finally got ourselves a tour guide. Our tour began with the vista across the Straits of Gibraltar and a view of Africa.
We saw the pillars of Hercules, marking the "end" of the Ancient World and the beginning of the Modern World, the Great Siege Tunnels, and the caves known as the gateway to Hades.
And…then we spent a couple of hours playing with the Barbary Apes. They were hilarious! The babies squeaked and rode on the backs of the elders. The teenagers begged for food, played, and climbed all over us. One even got feisty enough to give me some love bites on the arm and hand. (He didn’t break the skin, and it didn’t hurt. Really, it was funny.)
Yay monkeys!
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